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The Weekly Florists' Review. 



NOVEMBER 23, 



BUFFALO. 



After an absence of ten days, Buffalo 

 did not look quite the deserted village 

 it used to in years gone by. Main 

 street is not Broadway yet, but we 

 are getting there fast. 



Nothing of any great moment trans- 

 pired in our absence and the clocks did 

 not stop when we departed. There have 

 been a few buds emerged into society 

 and receptions and teas are coming, at 

 least we are invited to make an esti- 

 mate on several. Roses seem the most 

 plentiful flower. Carnations are im- 

 proving. Violets, so plentiful a month 

 ago, have shortened up awfully. There 

 is not a quarter enough to go round. 

 This stringency will soon be over, and 

 it is not local — it is general. 



As usual, chrysanthemums are soon 

 going to be scarce. It always happens 

 so, and now we hear and say, "I wish 

 I had a house of Liberty or Jones left." 

 A higher price at first would have done 

 this. We hear of $6.00 and $8.00 a 

 dozen being given for fine mums, but 

 it's hard to put your finger on the spot 

 There is no such price here, and $2.00, 

 $2.50 and $3.00 is our best price. 



Getting married is still the rage. The 

 last sacrifice was made by Mr. Wm. 

 Legg, Jr., son of our well known flor- 

 ist, Wm. Legg, of Del. Ave., and the 

 happy bride was Miss Lillian Hutter 

 Reeves. A trip to Boston and New 

 York rounded out the job, and now for 

 real life. The preliminaries was only 

 shuffling the cards; the real game is 

 now commenced. The average novel 

 lands the young couple at the altar 

 conquerors of the battle of life, all 

 fitted to roam in an earthly paradise, 

 when in real life the altar is only the 

 door that admits you to a sort of light- 

 blue opium-laden cloud that takes from 

 two to four weeks, more or less, to 

 pass through; after that you enter a 

 field where the man has to work to 

 live and the woman sits in the corner 

 and mends pants and, later, more or 

 less small hosiery. It must be awfully 

 nice to take a two-weeks' trip with a 

 sweet young bride, and we have found 

 it entirely to our liking to have a simi- 

 lar trip with a sweet old bride. 



A Ten Days' Trip. 



It does you lots of good to visit your 

 fellow craftsmen in larger cities. The 

 more you know yourself, the less need 

 to take a journey, but those that have 

 seen little away from home cannot 

 properly afford to remain always in 

 their little circle; they must get out, 

 and he is a dull man who won't by ob- 

 servation gain knowledge enough to 

 more than pay for his trip. 



The florists of Philadelphia seem 

 more in evidence in the City of Broth- 

 erly Love than anywhere I go. They 

 are of more consequence in the com- 

 munity and you feel when you meet 

 them and see their stores and places 

 that ours is a grand and beautiful bus- 

 iness. The old earthy, grubby garden- 

 er type is passing away, and a polished, 

 smart man is taking his place. 



Your correspondent has told you all 

 about the show. It struck me as most 

 excellent, particularly the fine plants 

 of chrysanthemums, a great improve- 

 ment on recent years, without any re- 

 markable specimens. The ferns were 

 magnificent and of many species. A 

 plant of N. Bostoniensis in a 20-inch 

 pan measured 9 feet high and had a 

 spread of 8 feet, and it was the second 

 prize plant at that. The cut mums 

 were grand, but nothing particularly 

 new. If you want to see wonderful 

 cyclamens, go to Lehnig & Winnefeld, 

 Hackensack, N. J. They had plants 

 there in 8-inch pots that measured 30 

 inches across. Robert Craig & Son's 

 collection of Gloire de Lorraine bego- 

 nia was a revelation. This, when 

 grown as they manage it, is truly a 

 wonderful plant. Plants in 6-inch pots, 

 some 18 inches high and the same 

 through, one mass of their beautiful 

 flowers. Nothing can surpass this glo- 

 rious plant. 



The carnations were very striking. 

 Ethel Crocker is a beauty, and for this 

 early date it was wonderful in size and 

 stem. Having seen it growing later, 

 we are of the opinion that it is a vig- 

 orous, free and beautiful variety, and 

 one that every one should have. H. 

 Weber & Sons' No. 11 is also a magnfi- 

 cent pink. While on carnations I may 

 as well say that Weber's Genevieve 

 Lord is another pink carnation of great 

 size and form and stem. Dailledouze 

 Bros, sent a vase of their carnation 

 666. It's a wonder for size, a finely 

 fimbriated flower, but the color — white, 

 suffused with pink — may not be want- 

 ed as the self-colored are. 



The shuffle-board and bowling alley 

 received almost as much attention as 

 the upper hall. What an array of tro- 

 phies they have! Some won by merit 

 and some by luck. A very beautiful 

 little statue of a boy watering a gar- 

 den was presented to John Westcott 

 for catching two perch on one hook. 



A look through the houses of R. 

 Craig & Son and Mr. Harris is well 

 worth a long journey. At the former 

 you see a first-class lot of stuff of many 

 kinds. I never saw the place with so 

 valuable a collection of plants — Cycla- 

 men, Begonia Gloire de Lorraine, rub- 

 bers, palms, dracaenas, pandanus, and 

 many magnificent Boston ferns. At 

 the carnation houses we saw the 

 beauty, Ethel Crocker. Here we first 

 saw growing America. Mr. Craig likes 

 it well and it certainly looked more 

 vigorous than Crane, if not quite as 

 good a color. Ward's two dark varie- 

 ties are well grown here, Gomez and 

 Maceo. The former is the brightest 

 color, but Maceo is much the freest 

 bloomer and largest flower. Where is 

 the rust gone? We are not particular 

 where, as long as it is gone. And we 

 failed to see it on this place. Like 

 other epidemics, it had its day and 

 passed away. We certainly did not kill 

 it. 



Mr. W. K. Harris' place is always in 

 order. Twenty-four houses filled with 

 valuable stuff. I don't believe there is 



the same quantity of glass in this coun- 

 try with its equal value of plants. 

 There is everything a man wants in 

 the decorative line, done to perfection. 

 When young Mr. Harris asks you to 

 step up on the bench and look over a 

 hundred-foot bench of chrysanthe- 

 mums, with the flowers literally touch- 

 ing, and know they sell, you don't 

 wonder that Mr. W. K. H. in his poetic 

 vein named this beautiful yellow "Our 

 dearest friend!" Mr. Harris' affection 

 for it is so touching that he has grown 

 this variety several years and never 

 sold a plant. Wise man! It has paid 

 him ten times what the plants would 

 have brought. 



A very striking feature there was a 

 lot of made-up 10-inch pots containing 

 four fine Dracaena terminalis, a strong 

 plant of D. Sanderiana, a grand com- 

 bination, and a few small plants of 

 Boston fern. For a Christmas gift they 

 are the ideal thing. 



At the foot of "Maaket" street you 

 get helped on your way to Atlantic 

 City, but the board walk, if it is four 

 miles long and 42 feet broad, is a lone- 

 some place just now, and as there are 

 700 hotels in the place and only 400 

 visitors, you are glad to reach the 

 more cheerful precincts of Baltimore. 



We will take back all we have ever 

 said about this hilly city. We had the 

 good fortune to accompany the Phila- 

 delphia men, and great hospitality they 

 received. Their show was fine and the 

 fine flowers should have been given 

 more space. A grand lot of carnations 

 were staged and there Weber's Gene- 

 vieve Lord and his pink seedling No. 

 11 were shown in splendid form. Noth- 

 ing could exceed the hospitality of the 

 Baltimore Boys. That tally-ho ride in 

 the morning behind four grays only 

 lacked Judge Sands to make it com- 

 plete. John Burton got into a fight 

 with George Watson over high prices 

 of glass; with that exception every- 

 thing was very pleasant. 



Now, I don't want to lay on taffy, 

 and am not doing it when I say that 

 of all good hearted, open handed, roy- 

 ally hospitable young men I ever met, 

 Mr. Bob Halliday takes the bakery, 

 and its entire honesty and naturalness 

 is the pleasing part of it. And in that 

 direction he is ably seconded by his 

 family. Our call at the home for half 

 an hour will long be remembered. The 

 well in the yard was condemned for 

 drinking water, but that affected only 

 the writer, and the rest did not look at 

 the pump. Carnations are the leading 

 article in the dozen or so houses, and 

 remarkably well they are done. They 

 use the "hairpin" support, and are well 

 satisfied with it, so extolling the 

 "Model" support was waste of time. 

 Old Daybreak is here grandly grown. 

 I was looking for rust, but looked in 

 vain. Robert Kift found it, but it was 

 on the wire support. 



Windows are very fine on Broadway, 

 New York, particularly that of Mr. 

 Small. We did not see Mr. Fleisch- 

 man, but we saw his horse, a dark 

 sorrel, 15 hands high and not afraid of 



